


I really can't tell if I'm dreaming or breathing

by croissantbleu



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Christmas fic, First Meetings, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, alcohol mention at the end, honestly changed the entire plot two weeks ago because i'm an idiot, honestly it's just a cute fic for christmas tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 17:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17084705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/croissantbleu/pseuds/croissantbleu
Summary: Dan is an events manager at the Queen's Garden's, one of the city's most renowned hotels, and he's organizing a Christmas reception with the cute reception planner called Phil Lester.





	I really can't tell if I'm dreaming or breathing

Dan's job was simple enough, but at the same time pretty exciting. He liked working in a fancy hotel, and as the events manager, he felt like he got to work with the best part of it. He was the one who essentially decided on which events would take place in the massive ballroom the hotel was renting out. He had a new client today, a reception planner named Phil Lester who was representing the Clarks, an important family in town. Dan had already agreed on their Christmas party next month, but now was the fun part where the event planner and him had to figure out all the specifics and details. And, speaking of the devil… Someone had just walked in and was crossing the hall towards his desk, black hair pushed up in a quiff and pale blue eyes  making the redness of his cheeks pop, and Dan was fairly sure it was Mr. Lester.

“Hi,” the man smiled. “I'm here to see Mr. Howell? It's about Mr. and Mrs. Clark’s Christmas reception.”

“That's me,” Dan smiled back, standing up and offering his hand. “You must be Mr. Lester?”

“Please, it's Phil,” he grinned again and shook Dan's hand. “I'm so glad I finally get to organize an event here, I've been wanting the see the Queen’s Gardens’ ballroom for years.”

“Well, let’s not keep you waiting any longer then,” Dan chuckled and walked around the counter to lead the way. “You can call me Dan, by the way. So,” he added, “any ideas of what you want yet?”

“Well, Mrs Clark is very adamant on silver being an important part of the theme, so I thought I’d go with a silver and green colour scheme. It's pretty simple, but that gives me more freedom to work. Is this it?” Phil asked when Dan stopped on front of two doors, impressive in height.

“It is,” Dan smiled a little as he turned the key. “Welcome to the Hydrangeas room,” he added, pushing open both doors for an added dramatic effect. 

He turned around to look at Phil and caught the sparkle in his eyes before he took a few steps forward, silently taking it in. Dan was used to it, people always needed a minute. And he understood why, he thought, eyes drifting back to the room and its completely demesurate dimensions, from the twenty feet high glass ceilings to the wall of mirrors and white marble columns on the right, without forgetting the 2,800 square feet of white carpeting. Phil walked to the curved wall entirely made of windows on their left, glass facing the mirrors’ wall.

“I love that,” he said. “Windows wall, that’s perfect, especially with that view of the gardens. It’s absolutely perfect,” he smiled, looking at Dan before glancing at the ceilings. “How high are these ceilings? Fifteen feet?”

“Twenty,” Dan replied. “Twenty feet at the lowest point, culminating at twenty-five.”

“Impressive,” Phil commented, getting a notebook out of his bag. “This room has a two hundred guests capacity, right?”

“Well, that depends on how it is set up, but it can host two hundred people for a dinner, usually with twenty tables of ten. And that leaves plenty of space for guests to sit by the windows, or dance, or just stand, and that doesn’t even count the bar over there,” he added, pointing to the part of the room furthest from the entrance doors.

“Great, thank you,” Phil nodded, scribbling a few things. “Oh, while I’m thinking about it, about the valet parking…”

“Valet parking is offered for any guest attending the event,” Dan assured. “We’ll just need to see an invitation, for safety reasons.”

“Oh, of course, perfect. And, I believe you also provide a catering service?”

“Absolutely,” he confirmed. “You can choose a different catering company or we’ll be happy to prepare anything you need. And, to be perfectly honest, it is pretty significantly less expensive. Also, our set-up and clean-up crew are at your disposition and their cost is included in the renting of the room, and we provide the tables and chairs, as well as the linen unless you’d rather choose a special one.”

Phil acquiesced, and they kept going on for a while like that, Dan answering all the questions Phil could think of, from precise measurements to accessibility conditions and making sure none of the guests would have any difficulty with the room. It took maybe two  hours, before Phil glanced at his watch and apologized profusely about keeping him so long. Dan just chuckled and assured him there was no problem, and that he’d be happy to answer any other questions he might have. He went back to the counter after Phil thanked him, leaving him to take some measures and whatever else he had to do, and noticed he’d missed a call from his boss on his desk phone so he called back right away.

“Hi Liza, sorry I missed your call, I was with a client. Can I help you?”

“Oh, sure!” Dan could hear a smile in her voice. “I was wondering if you’d sent me those files I’ve asked you? I can’t find them anywhere.”

He saw Phil coming back from the Hydrangeas room and waving at him while he walked to the door. Dan waved back.

“Ah, well I asked Aiden to put them on your desk because I had an appointment with someone who wanted to rent the Lilies room but maybe he hasn’t had time yet, I can check with him if you want?”

“That would be lovely, thank you, I’m swimming in paperwork, I’m scared if I move I’ll have to start over everything.”

“I’ll be right back,” Dan smiled and hung up, before setting off to find Aiden.

 

* * *

Dan was on the phone again when Phil came back the next day.

“Give me one second,” he whispered, covering the phone with his hand, before going back to his previous conversation. “I understand sir, it's no trouble at all. If you can just send me the documents, I'll see what I can do. Is that alright with you? Perfect. I'll call you back as soon as I have something. Sorry,” he looked back at Phil, putting the phone down. “How can I help you?”

“It’s no problem,” he smiled. “I was just wondering what were the shortest notice for the catering order? I know Mr and Mrs Clark can have difficulties making up their minds sometimes, so I just want to make sure we’ll definitely not miss it.”

“Oh, sure! I can call them for you and see what they tell me, if you’d like?”

“That would be awesome,” Phil smiled again, “thank you so much.”

“Of course, I’ll be just a minute,” he assure, picking up the phone again.

For a guy who hated calling people, he sure was spending a lot of time doing it for a living.

“Hello?” said a woman.

“Hi, Annalise? It’s Dan. Can I bother you for a second?”

“Oh, hey, yeah sure what’s up?”

“Got a client here for the Hydrangeas and they’ll need catering for… 180 people?” he checked with Phil, who nodded. “Yeah, they were wondering when was the last notice to give the orders.”

“Well, depends,” Annalise sounded like she was sitting down. “For that many people, if it’s a buffet, we can’t do under a week and a half, and that’s pushing it. Two to three weeks for a dinner with several courses, maybe closer to three weeks. Generally, the earlier we know what they want, the easier it’ll be to make sure we got everything ready for them if it’s too short notice we’re risking missing a few things.”

“Okay,” Dan quickly wrote it down to make sure he wouldn’t get anything wrong. “Thanks! I’ll pass the info along. I'll see you later,” he added.

“See you around, kid.”

He turned back to Phil, and explained what Annalise had just told him.

“Great, thank you,” Phil smiled. “I'll make sure we're ahead of that.”

“No problem at all! Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Oh, no, I'm fine. I was just in the neighbourhood and remembered I should ask about the order time before it got too late.”

“Alright,” Dan smiled. “Don’t hesitate if you need anything else.”

“I won’t,” he smiled back.

*

Phil stayed true to his word, not hesitating to stop by every day, with increasingly small details he’d thought of. Not that Dan was complaining, far from it, he quite liked talking with Phil, even if it was just about flowers arrangement and what type of glasses would be on the tables. He thought he was nice, and just generally a warm and funny person, which was a bit of a relief with all the other uptight and strict event planners he usually dealt with. Besides, it didn’t hurt that Phil was really cute as well, and Dan kept finding himself getting distracted by the tiny specks of gold amongst the blue of his eyes.

“You know,” he said after answering another one of Phil’s asks, “if you want to save yourself the journey here every day, you could just call me. My phone number’s on the website.”

“I know, I know,” Phil replied, with a smile that seemed almost embarrassed. “But to be honest, I like being able to discuss things with you face to face. It helps with the visualization,” he added quickly, red spreading on his cheeks, and Dan bit back a grin. “And, I don’t want to be pestering you on your work phone, I’d risk making you miss a more important call.”

“If that’s all that’s bothering you,” Dan scribbled on a piece of paper, unable to hide a small smirk. “Here,” he added, handing it to Phil. “That’s my personal number, guaranteed without important phone calls you could interrupt.”

Phil laughed and put it in his pocket. “Thanks, I’ll make sure to make good use of it.”

“I’m sure you will,” Dan laughed a little as well.

*

Phil’s daily visits had quickly turned into daily texts, and even these were getting more and more frequent day after day.  But today had been a long, long one, and Dan’s phone battery had given up before the end of it and he didn’t get the chance to charge it before he finally got home. He plugged it before jumping in the shower, and came back to three unread messages from Phil when his phone died. He replied quickly, apologizing for disappearing like that. His phone buzzed almost immediately, it was another text from Phil.

_ No problem! I was just worried you fell asleep at your desk _

Dan laughed.

_ That wouldn't be very professional, I doubt my boss would appreciate _

_ You should rest!  _ Phil replied.  _ Tomorrow will be worse than today if you don't, and we don't want that _

Dan smiled and promised he would. He was exhausted anyway, and he couldn't wait to be in the cozyness of his bed.

 

* * *

Dan’s phone rang while he was sat at his desk, and he first tried to pick up the desk phone, before realizing the one ringing was his personal one. He really needed a break, maybe he’d ask Liza if he could take a week off after New Year’s eve. Nobody ever planned events that week anyway, so it would probably not be a problem.

“Hello?” 

“Hi, Dan? It’s Phil.”

“Oh, hey,” he smiled. “What’s up?”

“I’m on my way to go pick up some flowers to see which ones would fit more in the room, I was wondering if you’d want to come along? You know the vibe of the room better than I do, so that could help a lot.”

Dan hesitated, but he glanced at his schedule for the day and noticed there wasn’t any pressing matter he needed to deal with right now, and he really needed to take a break from his office.

“Okay, sure,” he said eventually.

“Really? Awesome,” Phil sounded genuinely excited, and that made Dan smile again. “Okay, I’ll come pick you up in like five minutes. I was hoping you’d say yes,” he added with a giggle. “See you!”

Dan just chuckled and shook his head, but he was honestly glad he got to get out of there for a few minutes. Besides, it had been a while since he’d seen Phil, now that they were texting instead, and maybe he’d missed him a bit. Just a bit. Everyone at work was teasing him about it, saying he looked less excited now that Phil wasn’t coming here everyday. He didn’t mind, it was all in good fun. And, he couldn’t really deny that they were right.

Phil walked through the front doors about five minutes after they’d hung up and offered him an apologetic smile when Dan just chuckled and shook his head, grabbing his coat.

“Thanks for that,” he said when they were outside. “I needed a break.”

“You’re welcome then,” Phil grinned. “I could actually use your help with those flowers though, they’re not exactly my strong point,” he added with a grimace.

“Well you’re lucky then,” Dan smirked, “my uncle’s a florist, I used to go help him at the shop all the time when I was younger, that was always a lot of fun.”

“Daniel Howell, you’re officially going to save this whole reception from my terrible flower skills,” he said, very seriously if it wasn’t for the glint in his eyes.

Dan laughed. “Come on, you did all the work, I’m just doing my job and helping out. Hey, there’s a nice flower shop just this way,” he added. “If you want to check it out?”

“Oh sure! That looks perfect.”

“So, what were you thinking?” Dan asked a few minutes later, while they were looking around at all the different flowers.

“I’d like a table piece,” Phil said. “Not too imposing because we’ll already have two massive trees and it would be overbearing, but something to remind them a little bit.”

“Okay,” Dan nodded. “What about these?” he picked up some white roses. “Since your colour theme is silver and green, some white could be a nice touch? In a slim and high vase, so it doesn’t feel too heavy.”

“Good idea,” Phil smiled brightly. “I was also thinking, having two different kinds would be good, it’d prevent the tables from looking a bit boring. I like these,” he pointed to a delicate arrangement of green moss and succulents surrounding a white candle encased in glass. “I like the natural vibe, and it’ll be perfect with the trees.”

“That sounds awesome,” Dan said. “See, you’re not so terrible at that, I knew you were exaggerating.” 

Phil laughed but didn’t add anything while he walked to the register, coming back a few seconds later with a bouquet of white roses that he handed to Dan, and maybe his cheeks were rosier than usual, or maybe Dan was just reading too much into this.

“Here,” he said, “as a thank you for helping me out with this.”

Dan could feel his ears getting red and he tried to hide it with a laugh, taking the flowers and assuring him it was no trouble at all.

Annalise gave him a amused look when he came back with the bouquet but didn’t say a word, and Dan knew he was blushing whenever his eyes landed on where he’d set them on his desk.

He put them in a vase on the table when he got home, and he got that strange fluttering feeling in his chest everytime he walked past them, but he did his best to not think about what it was.

 

* * *

After all this time, the Christmas reception was finally happening. Dan was supervising it from the sides, making sure everything went smoothly and immediately taking care of any small issues that could arise. He knew Phil was somewhere close too, but he'd been too busy looking over everything in the kitchen to have even a second to look for him. But now that the kitchen was well on its way, he could take a step back and have a glass or two of champagne. Okay, maybe a little bit more, but it couldn't hurt. After all, it was provided by the hotel and he was officially off duty. Phil had done an amazing job, he thought when he looked around, the room was beautiful. The tables were covered by a white linen and a gauzy fabric adorned by silver snowflakes, over which were the centerpieces they had picked together. In two of the corners of the rooms was an 18 feet Norman Fir, decorated with delicate suspensions that gave it an eerie look, that was probably exactly what Phil had wanted. And it did go perfectly with the room, it had snowed just a day or too prior and the gardens through the windows were still covered in the whitest snow that seemed right out of a fairy tale.

"Hey," someone said next to him, making him jump.

He hadn't heard anyone approaching, but surely enough, it was Phil.

"Sorry," he apologized, "Didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," Dan smiled. "I was just thinking that was a nice reception. Aren't you still working?" he raised an eyebrow at the glass of champagne Phil was holding.

"Eh, kind of," he shrugged. "Mr Clark insisted that I enjoyed the party too, now that the dinner is over, so I'm following orders."

Dan chuckled, and he couldn't tell if it was the alcohol or something else, but there was a strange diffuse warmth in his chest, and maybe he was looking at Phil too much but there was a sparkle in his eyes that he couldn't look away from. Phil smiled, like he knew just what Dan was thinking, and set his drink on the pedestal table next to him, before taking Dan's hand and leading him out of the room. Everyone was too busy to pay attention to them. 

Once they'd walked back the heavy doors, Dan took the lead and pulled Phil along into a supply room. He might be off duty, but he'd still rather be careful. They both laughed when they noticed the mistletoe hanging from a shelf, and Phil was so beautiful, laughing with his hair falling on his face, that the warmth in Dan’s chest turned into a raging fire, even more so when Phil leaned in, bringing a hand up to the nape of his neck. Dan’s arm seemed to move on its own, fingers gripping onto Phil’s hair. He could taste the champagne on his lips, and he wasn’t sure if he was drunk or falling in love. Probably both. He giggled breathlessly when they moved apart, unable to say anything.

“You’re so damn pretty,” Phil whispered, softly tracing the shape of Dan’s lips, and this time Dan was the one to pull him forward.

 

* * *

Phil had fallen asleep on Dan’s lap, and Dan was just mindlessly playing with his hair, not wanting to wake him up. He’d been staying up late these past few days, working for new clients, and Dan had to constantly make sure he was eating enough. Some extra sleep couldn’t hurt. He’d gotten used to it over the last six months, the first few days with a client were always the busiest for Phil so he would usually stay at Dan’s. Dan liked that, it meant more evenings like today, just cuddling on the couch while watching movies. It was nice.

He still had trouble believing this was all happening sometimes, it felt too good to be true. But then he’d look at Phil and he’d know it was all real.

He felt him stirring awake, and he gently brushed the hair off of his forehead.

“Hi there,” he smiled.

“Hey,” Phil said, shifting so he could look at him. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep, sorry.”

“I know, I didn’t want to wake you up,” Dan went to stroke his cheek but Phil was quicker to take a hold of it and drop a kiss on it, making him chuckle. “Come on love, let’s get you to bed.”

“Mmmh but I don’t want to move,” he whined. “I’m comfortable.”

“You’ll be more comfortable in bed,” Dan laughed. “Come on, you’re going to hurt your neck staying like that.”

Phil groaned but he got up, pulling Dan on his feet with the hand he was still holding, and they made their way to the bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you everyone for reading! As usual, big thank you to @/parentaladvisorybullshitcontent for beta'ing this fic for me you're the best  
> I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave a comment below or come talk to me on tumblr @/xmasditl!


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